Two headed calf

[chippie]

The thing is, someone can do a search and find this thread and read about cattle birth defects and probably draw the wrong conclusion about the safety of eating beef.

And for the touchy feelie folks, I don't hug my chickens or my cows, not even the baby calves (and yes that is a common question).

So you too think a person should just hide the evidence and pretend it never happens. :shock: Do you feel this way about special needs children as well? Hide them?

TB,
I am a Special Olympics Volunteer and do not feel that that special needs human beings should be hidden or tucked away from society.
What needs not to be said are the jokes/comments about what the cattle have been fed and how they are managed.
It is all how people perceive things.

 

[TexasBred]

The thing is, someone can do a search and find this thread and read about cattle birth defects and probably draw the wrong conclusion about the safety of eating beef.

And for the touchy feelie folks, I don't hug my chickens or my cows, not even the baby calves (and yes that is a common question).

So you too think a person should just hide the evidence and pretend it never happens. :shock: Do you feel this way about special needs children as well? Hide them?

TB,
I am a Special Olympics Volunteer and do not feel that that special needs human beings should be hidden or tucked away from society.
What needs not to be said are the jokes/comments about what the cattle have been fed and how they are managed.
It is all how people perceive things.

Good for you. And I have a special needs great granddaughter that I dealer love....Oh and the way some folks feed and manage cattle IS a joke. :nod:

 

[cow pollinater]

I doubt it. We use to calve out about 500 holsteins every year and never had a malformed calf like these being described. Had a few abortions over the year but no deformed calves.

500 is not big enough to be much of a sample size. You could have well documented defects there that never surfaced.
I've seen three two headed calves and seven or eight with additional apendages. In fact, I just culled a heifer from one of my AI pens with a fifth leg that nobody noticed... I walked right by it myself without seeing it until she came into heat. Keeping bulls back from within the herd is a horrible way to manage problems like that but they do still happen in well managed herds.

 

[cowgirl8]

I doubt it. We use to calve out about 500 holsteins every year and never had a malformed calf like these being described. Had a few abortions over the year but no deformed calves.

500 is not big enough to be much of a sample size. You could have well documented defects there that never surfaced.
I've seen three two headed calves and seven or eight with additional apendages. In fact, I just culled a heifer from one of my AI pens with a fifth leg that nobody noticed... I walked right by it myself without seeing it until she came into heat. Keeping bulls back from within the herd is a horrible way to manage problems like that but they do still happen in well managed herds.

We change out bulls pretty often, lately its been because of death from injury :? . We dont keep any of our angus bull calves. Its mainly the big sim bull calves that show potential early on. First they have to be small when born. If they outgrow everyone, that gets noticed. When we castrate and get close to all the calves, we inspect the bulls we may want to keep. If they are gentle and we like what we see. We'll leave him a bull. If by weaning we still like him, we'll put him in the bull pasture to overwinter. If he still grows and impresses us, we'll put him in one of the intermediate herds for a year with older bulls of course..If he still holds his own and grows, we try him again another year. He does not go on a herd where he may be related to anyone, but sometimes it happens. But most of the sims we've kept have been out of bought show heifers or closely related to.
Our problems are so sporadic throughout the years i'm not sure if i could pinpoint to any bull or breed. But the hairless this year is going to be an angus problem...

 

[TexasBred]

I doubt it. We use to calve out about 500 holsteins every year and never had a malformed calf like these being described. Had a few abortions over the year but no deformed calves.

500 is not big enough to be much of a sample size. You could have well documented defects there that never surfaced.
I've seen three two headed calves and seven or eight with additional apendages. In fact, I just culled a heifer from one of my AI pens with a fifth leg that nobody noticed... I walked right by it myself without seeing it until she came into heat. Keeping bulls back from within the herd is a horrible way to manage problems like that but they do still happen in well managed herds.

500 =/- every year for 11 years is more than enough for me. We raised every calf that was born and had no defects during that time. We don't have those 10,000 head dairies in this neck of the woods.

 

[cowgirl8]

I think most that have posted negative about this subject have also said if they did have any defects it would be buried and never talked about. So, who knows...

 

[peg4x4]

When I was in TSTI in Waco,someone brought us a kitten (newborn) with only one eye and no nose. It was dead,of course.. Sometimes things go wrong *shrug*

 

[cow pollinater]

I doubt it. We use to calve out about 500 holsteins every year and never had a malformed calf like these being described. Had a few abortions over the year but no deformed calves.

500 is not big enough to be much of a sample size. You could have well documented defects there that never surfaced.
I've seen three two headed calves and seven or eight with additional apendages. In fact, I just culled a heifer from one of my AI pens with a fifth leg that nobody noticed... I walked right by it myself without seeing it until she came into heat. Keeping bulls back from within the herd is a horrible way to manage problems like that but they do still happen in well managed herds.

500 =/- every year for 11 years is more than enough for me. We raised every calf that was born and had no defects during that time. We don't have those 10,000 head dairies in this neck of the woods.

Sorry, TB. I didn't mean to come across like I was belittling your operation. 500 is huge when you're involved in every part of it. My point was just that it's a small sample. For the amount of deformed calves that I've seen in relation to the amount of cows that I deal with it does not surprise me that you went that long with no deformed calves.